tin can knits

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Alexa and I are a little bit obsessed with the Flax sweater. Why do we keep ‘selling’ you this FREE pattern?! Well, probably because it’s one of our best basics, and we can’t help knit it over and over (and over) again. This time I’ll show you how I’ve hacked the Flax pattern and made it all pink and girly for my adorable little niece, for her birthday! If you haven’t joined our Hackathon yet, you can get all the details here. We’ve got PINK (it’s intense), and we’ve got LACE… There’s no way this could fail to be fabulous!

Rainbow Heirloom Sweater in ‘princess rockstar’. It’s a heavy DK so I’ll knit it at about 20 sts / 4″ in stockinette. Check out the Rainbow Heirloom shop – pro tip: you can always custom order sweater quantities in ANY of their gorgeous shades.

flax sweater : a free pattern that’s dead easy to hack

The Flax pattern is a perfect blank canvas, it’s very easy to add a panel of lace, cable, or texture on body or sleeves. Flax is a from the Simple Collection, our learn-to-knit series. If you’ve never knit a sweater before, it’s the perfect pattern to start with, and we’ve got a complete tutorial on how to work each step. If you are dying to use up some fingering weight yarn from your stash we also have the Flax Light.

I found a lovely lace pattern that I was itching to try, so I used flax as a base to hack. The lace pattern has a 12-stitch repeat, with one edge stitch. So I decided to put a 13-stitch panel on each sleeve, and a 25 stitch panel, with 2 purl stitches either side, on the front of the pullover.

The chart for the lace panel which I used in this hack. Don’t know how to read a knitting chart? Check out our tutorial, and learn how!

I looked at the Flax pattern to find the sleeve and body stitch counts for my chosen size (2-4 yrs). Following the pattern, after marker placement, there are 13 sts at sleeves, and 26 sts at front and back, for a total of 78 sts. (13 + 26 + 13 + 26 = 78)

To place a 13-stitch panel at the sleeves, I would need a couple extra stitches each side, in which to work the increases. So I’d start with 15 sts at the sleeves. At the front and back, I’d place the 25 stitch panel, 4 purl sts (2 each side), and then 1 extra stitch each side in which to work the increases, for a total of 31 sts at front. (15 + 31 + 15 + 31 = 92 sts). So after the neckline ribbing was worked per the 2-4 year size (74 sts) I increased 18 sts, evenly spaced, and then set up markers to divide the body and sleeve sections.

Not sure how to calculate ‘evenly spaced’ increases? You can do the math (74 /18 = 4.111, so just [k4, m1] 18 times, knit to end), or you can use a handy-dandy calculator, like this one by the Knitting Fiend.

I placed the lace panel in the centre of the front and back sections, and the smaller lace panel on the sleeves. I worked the remainder of the sleeves in reverse stockinette, and the body in stockinette.

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I followed the raglan shaping pattern (increasing 2 sts at each raglan marker every 2nd round) simply working the number of increases stated in the pattern (8). Then I worked a few more rounds even, continuing the panels, to create a bit more yoke length. After separating body and sleeves, I worked body to hem, and when I worked the sleeves, I created a stockinette stitch panel at the underarms, which I felt was a nice tidy detail. To shape the sleeves, I worked p2tog either side of this stockinette panel.

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I loved the combination of yarn and details on this simple hack. It was such a pleasure to work with such an intense and beautiful colour!

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#TCKhackathon

The free Flax and Flax Light patterns are perfect to hack or use as a base for your own inspiration. It’s so easy to add in a panel or a pattern, and we’ll share another adorable version with you next week!

There is one more week left to join in our #TCKhackathon – a knit-along with a fantastic prize, and even better chat and support on the Facebook group, or if you prefer, the Ravelry group! Remember to tag your projects #TCKhackathon when you share on your favourite social spot!

other flax hacks:

Alexa made a whole family of flax sweaters with rainbow stripes!

I made a teeny tiny flax with stripes and a very simple fair isle pattern!

We’ve got another special flax hack to share with you next week!

Other Simple Sweaters from TCK:

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When Emily did her hack of the Flax sweater I thought: ooh, me too! The Flax seemed like the perfect neutral base to really show off a lovely cable. I decided to skip the garter on the sleeves to keep it super simple and make that cable the star. I knit a little swatch to see how wide my cable would be and away I went. If you haven’t joined our Hackathon yet, you can get all the details here.

project details:

Pattern: Flax (hack in details below)

Yarn: Tanis Fiber Arts Green Label Aran in ‘Chris Grey’

Needles: US #6 / 4mm and US #8 / 5mm

how I did it:

The key to hacking the Flax sweater is your replacement rate. The cable pattern I wanted to add was 24 sts and measured 4 inches across. The gauge for my cable is tighter, more dense, than my stockinette gauge. So I need to add stitches to make it all fit. The gauge for Flax is 18 sts per 4″ so I need to add 6 sts (24-18) to the front and back, where my cable will go.

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It just so happens that the Flax sweater already has an increase round right after the ribbing

Next round: knit, increasing 4 (4, 4, 4, 8, 18, 16, 12, 18, 22, 26, 24, 36, 46, 48, 54, 56) sts evenly spaced

I just added my 12 stitch increase here, I knit the 4-6 size so instead of increasing 8 sts evenly spaced, I increased 20.

In the marker set up, you need to add these stitches as well: the sleeves remain the same, but the front and back will each be 6 sts more. For the 4-6 size the front and back have 28 + 6 = 34 sts. I wanted to work my cable in the centre so I worked 5 stockinette sts on either side of the cable. With the raglan increases, these 5 sts will grow, but the cable panel will be the same, always 24 sts down the center of the front and back.

I worked the rest of the pattern the same, skipping the purl stitches on the sleeves and knitting them instead. You will need to account for your extra 12 sts at each stitch count (eg. the body will be 12 sts more). My sweater ended up a bit longer than the length called for because I wanted to end on a chart round 12, so that the start and end of the cable looked similar.

Hunter is wearing the classic Flax and Maddie is wearing the hacked version

#TCKhackathon

Other ‘hackable’ patterns from TCK:

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Well, hacking the Flax sweater is officially one of our favourite activities. This one started with a lovely yarn and sort of meandered it’s way to the final sweater. I usually have some sort of plan when I cast on a sweater, but for this one I kind of winged it. If you haven’t already checked them out yet, take a look at the lacy and cabled flax hacks we shared recently.

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It all started with an Instagram post by @houseofalamode (House of A La Mode) . Heather posted this beautiful speckled colour, somewhat Christmas-y, called Tinsel. I had to have it! I ordered up 3 skeins of DK with vague plans of a Christmas sweater for Bodhi. When the yarn arrived Hunter declared it hers and said ‘please will you knit me a sweater with this?!’. A 5-year-old who is enthusiastic about a knitted sweater? I couldn’t resist.

hacked flax!

I really enjoy speckled yarns. They are wild and fun and such a joy to knit with. Colour changes with practically every stitch! They can be a bit overbearing though, so I had a good long debate with myself (and anyone who would listen) over whether to stripe this beautiful yarn with a solid to keep it a little subdued. If it had been a sweater for me I might have gone that route, but for my Kindergartener, why not go a little wild?

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With a yarn this fun, it had to be a simple sweater so I took a little look at the numbers for Flax and cast on. My yarn was a plumpy DK so I knit it at a gauge of 20 sts per 4 inches on a US #7 / 4.5mm needles. I cast on for the XS to achieve more or less a size 8-10 (which is the size Hunter wears in commercial clothing, she’s big for 5).

I wanted the neckline to be a little lower in front so I worked a little short row shaping at the back neck. Then, instead of working a garter panel on the sleeves, I went with a garter front and back with stockinette sleeves. I did not, as a good knitter should, swatch in garter. Since it was a sweater for a youngster I figured it was okay if the body came out a little big. It did, and it is fine.

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I also wanted to add a hi-low hem. I like my sweaters a little longer in the back than the front, so I added short row shaping at the back hem. If this is a look you are after here approximately how is how it’s done:

Adding a lower hemline at the back, when working a top-down sweater:

First, locate your BOR at left underarm, the back sts will be the first half of the round.

Step 1: work 1/2 of your stitches, PM, work to end (this places a marker at the other underarm)
Step 2: work to 3 sts past the marker, w&t
Step 3: work to 3 sts past the BOR marker, w&t
Step 4: work to 2 sts before wrapped stitch, w&t

Repeat step 4 until your hemline is the desired amount lower than the front. For my sweater I worked a total of 12 short rows, making my hem about 1.5 inches lower than the front. The amount of short rows you work will depend on your row gauge and how much lower you want your hem to be.

There you have it! A little late, but Hunter got her wild and speckled Christmas sweater!

More speckle-friendly designs by TCK:

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I’m always swamped by creative ideas in the winter! In the lead up to Christmas, I’m inspired by the opportunity to make handmade gifts of all sorts. And I’m filled with the desire to get new things started as I think forward to the coming new year.

My latest obsession is a desire to get back to spinning. When I first embarked upon my fibre obsession, back in 2008, I learned how to spin using a drop spindle, and then on my mom’s old Ashford, and made a few pretty yarns. Since then I’ve felt that spinning was too impractical, time consuming, and took to much time away from the knitting and designing side of things, so I’d laid it aside.

Some of the handspun I made back in 2008 when I first learned to spin.

But for some unknown reason, this strange need to spin has bubbled back up, and the desire simply wouldn’t be quieted, despite my logical self still having the same reservations! I think my closet dream the truth is that I really want to spin myself enough yarn to knit myself a sweater.

So what did I do? I ordered ALL the fibres from John Arbon. Then every day that passed, I woke up and wondered… when will my lovely box of fibre arrive? I started researching second-hand spinning wheels on Ebay. I started thinking about ideal designs for handspun. I essentially danced around the house in a state of anxious excited energy!

Then, not very much longer, the fuzzy stuff arrived!

I told my hubby John I needed to go out for milk (so could he please bathe and bedtime the babies), then I ran out of the house, and walked around the block a couple of times while googling how to make a DIY spindle. It was 7pm, and I simply could not wait till the next day, when I could buy a spindle at my LYS. I got home, cleverly having wasted enough time that I had only to kiss the little darlings and shut their door, and then I ransacked the house for suitable supplies. 20 minutes later I was spindling (albeit on a less-than-ideal tool!).

30 minutes after that I had fully remembered why I thought spindle spinning entirely impractical… and had cast on a … something. I thought perhaps a baby hat, since there were 60 sts on the needle. But then the tube got longer and longer, and I decided that in fact it was going to be a Christmas stocking! No pattern, I just sort of winged it.

handspun stocking

So as much as I don’t love spindling (well, I do, but I feel it’s just too slow for my needs), I remembered how much I DO love spinning. So I’ve now ordered an Electric Eel Wheel… but I have to wait till May for it to ship! So anybody in the UK with a second-hand wheel they’d like to lend or sell me at an affordable price for the interminable interim period?! I’m serious! Email me – tincanknits@gmail.com.

There’s something really special about handspun, and about knitting with handspun… I think it adds another layer of excitement into knitting, above and beyond the adoration I have for the sport at present!

It wasn’t done in time for Christmas, but it’ll be perfect for the next! Now I just have to make 3 more for the rest of the family…

Are you a spinner? Do you have any tips for great fibre dyers that I should order from in the UK?

I did a little search of the Ravelry archives for Tin Can Knits designs knit up in handspun, and some of the results are below… Very Very pretty stuff!

Project Credit: debby’s rye socks, spinnydread’s pop, peacethrufiber’s Low Tide, twincookies’s barley, loribird’s Antler Hat, and jessicam’s flax

TCK patterns to make your handspun yarn shine:

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We LOVE LOVE LOVED your knits and entries for the #TCKhackathon2016 !

There were so many inspiring knits, beautiful projects. Thanks to everyone who participated! We really enjoyed chatting and watching your projects come together on the Facebook Group too! We’re going to keep that group alive and well so that we can run future knitalongs there; hopefully this is OK with the current group members, and if not, it’s easy to remove yourself from the group if you’re not enjoying it.

There were so many projects we loved, it was nearly impossible to choose JUST one.

But we had to pick somebody to get the SUPERPRIZE…

That said, we couldn’t send ALL the love to just one knitter, so we decided to add in some honourable mentions! These knitters will receive one TCK published single pattern of their choice:

honourable mentions:

weirdest, wildest, wooliest: hot water bottle cozy with Prism colourwork pattern by mgpetitelady,
go big or go home: gramps + fair isle hack by corynablasko and striped harvest with handspun by hippocamel, 3 striped raindrops pullovers for nieces
oh so cutesy: snowman mittens by corvid, polar bear flax by bumblebeebaby, hedgehog mittens by karlie, cat ear mittens by missfatbird
love your design talent: new yoke design (based on North Shore) by spirittrail, cable mittens by crochetpunhere, hand oven doubled mittens by carocvin, double lace mittens by ilovermyclover, Snowflake heel Rye Socks by heatheroconnell
our fav little project: barley with a horseshoe cable by thisfeministknits
yay for beginners: cable pattern on Rye socks by pleccii (her first sock, her first hack, her first Rav forum post Hurrah!
can’t really give her a prize (she’s an in-person friend), but love her epic hack: Rokay’s gramps + baaable mashup

There were really just too many fabulous hacks for us to share! Check them all out over on the Ravelry FO thread, surf the Facebook Group, and look at all the projects tagged #TCKhackathon2016 on Instagram. You may find, as we did, that some definite themes emerged.

People did LOVE hacking our free top-down sweater patterns; Flax and Flax Light:

And The World’s Simplest Mittens, our new free multi-gauge pattern, also got a LOT of play:

drum roll please!

The winner of the SUPERPRIZE, this was a favourite chosen by Alexa and I, was this lovely lacey Flax Light hack by hobbular!

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This sweater pleased us because it took something simple and made it unique! The addition of a lovely lace pattern (credit to Adrienne Fong for the lace pattern) and beads made her Flax something all her own.

She will soon be receiving:

our newest book, Mad Colour book (plus ebook)
5 skeins of Plucky Sweater in ‘ kissin’ Valentino’ (YUMMMM)
Shepherdess Bag from Long Way Homestead
Zipper notions bag from Blue Button Sewing
a candle and travel candle from Wax and Wool

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We love your subversive spirit!

We invited you to hack it, and you responded with an overwhelming YEAH WE WILL!

We had over 1000 knitters join our Facebook Group, and it was so much fun to see what you were all working on! We had nearly 300 official entries on the FO thread in our Ravelry group! Check them out to see the weird and woolly ideas people explored in this knitalong!

We’ve named 2017 the Year of Thoughtful Knitting, and will be exploring this theme through our projects, our knits, and knitters’ stories that inspire us. Looking back, the hackathon KAL definitely brought out those knitters who love to hack and design as they go, knitters after our own hearts!

Want to learn more about upcoming designs and special events like this KAL? Sign up for our email updates for knit inspiration!

Knitters favourite TCK patterns to hack:

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When knitters subscribe to our email updates (do it now if you haven’t already, eh?!) we ask them to send us a note and tell us what they’re knitting, what they are struggling with, and WHY this thing called knitting inspires them. These are some of our very favourite emails, full of stories both happy and sad, little windows into the lives of knitters. We thank you so much for sharing your stories with us! These stories are the inspiration for 2017: The Year of Thoughtful Knitting.

Thinking a bit more about the yarns we use is part of our Year of Thoughtful Knitting

Over the years, as Alexa and I read your notes, we have found that there are common themes and stories that unite us. I think these stories we have in common are part of the glue that holds the knitting community together, and makes it such a vibrant place for creative exploration.

Grain is our latest addition to The Simple Collection

If you have been with us for a while you might remember the Simple Collection in 2013 (a year of learning to knit!), The Year of the Sweater in 2015 (Alexa and I knit a whopping 36 sweaters between us!), and The Year of Something New in 2016 (I took on a bit of Brioche!). This year we want to knit thoughtfully. We will be exploring why we knit, the yarns we use, sharing knitters’ stories and thinking about our own.

In February, we’ll be bringing you a very special collaborative project that we hope will inspire knitting, and get you thinking about how we knit with care!

Heart On My Sleeve is coming very soon!

If you’re curious and want to know when Heart On My Sleeve is launched you can find the info on any of your favourite social spots (#yearofthoughtfulknitting), or you can sign up for our email updates.

Let’s make 2017 a good one!

On my knit list for this year:

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I have undertaken a new project this year, called Year of Making. I actually started in December, so you may have seen some posts in my Instagram Stories feed tagged #yearofmaking. I was inspired to do this by the #yearofmaking projects done by Miriam Felton and Kim Werker; learn a bit more about their take on it on Kim’s podcast here.

One of the larger projects I worked on since I started the #yearofmaking project was these dolls, made for my kids and nieces and nephews this Christmas

One of the larger projects I worked on since I started my #yearofmaking project was these dolls, made for my kids and nieces and nephews this Christmas

The idea, or the one that I’m running with, is to make something every day, and to document that daily. I’m taking a quick photo (trying not to worry about pretty pretty), and keeping daily notes. I’m not sure whether this will change my habits as a maker, or whether it will simply be a documentation of the making that I was already doing. When my work days include a lot of computer time, writing, layout, editing, website building and the like I sometimes feel like my job is all work and no play (there’s never enough knitting!). By documenting my day-to-day making that I am in fact doing, I hope to recognize that this is not the case, and perhaps be inspired to insert a little bit more making into each week. I’m really not sure what I will get out of the exercise, but it’s something that I want to try.

Ambitions, hopes, and ideas for this project? I usually have too many!

try new vegetarian recipes (cut a bit of the meat out of my family’s diet)
more recipes which involve PASTRY (nom nom)
complete some sewing WIPS (so I can start new projects)
sew BAGS, coats, trousers, shirts, …
do more block printing (I took a fabulous class last year and got started)
focus on the kids handmade wardrobes again this spring in Mini Me Made May
do more art and cooking with Max (he’s 2.5 now, and interested in making things)
complete some lingering knitting WIPS
perhaps try knitting only 1 project at a time, to see if I can be more of a completionist!
illustrate a book for Max and Neve
drawings for cards
finish a couple of quilts; hand quilting

… and I’ve got way more, really, but let’s just start there!

Rules? No rules, really

I am considering anything that I make, physically, an act of making for the purposes of this project. Dinner, baking, a few stitches on a knitting project, a drawing, play-dough creatures made with Max, etc. I am hoping this project might expand my view of myself as a maker to include the things I create which are outside of my ‘knit box’. I don’t know what, if anything, will come from this project, but it has already inspired me to try out a few new recipes, techniques, and projects beyond what I would normally have taken on. And it has made me happy and given me more pleasure to consider some of the mundane day-to-day responsibilities (ie. cooking) as creative making, and an opportunity to play with Max too.

A few of my ‘making’ projects so far:

You’ll probably see quite a bit of cooking included in the items I can share publicly, because a large amount of my knitting is for new designs, which we usually can’t share until they are published. I’ll be sharing some of my photos and projects on Instagram and more regularly on our Instagram Stories feed, so check there if you’d like to follow along with what I’ve been making! Or start your own #yearofmaking!

Do you have a project for this year?

The beginning of a new year can be an opportunity for new ideas, plans, visions and excitement. This year at Tin Can Knits we’re exploring the reasons why we knit, and considering 2017 a Year of Thoughtful Knitting. We hope to share knitters’ stories, and explore the ways in which our shared craft brings people together, expresses love, gives comfort, and brings us happiness and joy. I hope the coming year will be full of knits and full of joy for you and your loved ones.

Some TCK knits I’m planning to make this year:

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Bodhi is wearing her Antler Toque in Malabrigo Rios and a fun faux fur pom pom from Stash in Calgary

Bodhi is wearing her Antler Toque in Malabrigo Rios and a fun faux fur pom pom I picked up at Stash in Calgary

Ready to knit a cabled hat?! In this tutorial we will go step by step through the Antler Toque, a great way to learn about cables, charts, and hat knitting in general. If you are looking for something a little simpler, try our free Barley hat pattern and tutorial from The Simple Collection.

Ready your supplies:

Step one, download the Antler Toque pattern, and gather your supplies. You will need:

worsted weight yarn (in this tutorial we are using Malabrigo Rios in ‘water green’)
a US #6/ 4mm 16″ circular needle
a US #8/ 5mm 16″ circular needle and double pointed needles
a cable needle
a stitch marker
a darning needle.
If you happen to have a surly bearded man around, it helps for modeling once your hat is done, but that part is optional.

Choosing a size:

sizing: Baby (Child, Adult S, L)
To fit 16 (18, 21, 23)” head

While some patterns include ‘finished measurements’ you will note that the Antler Toque has ‘to fit’ measurements. That is because this hat has a little bit of negative ease built in for a proper fit (negative ease means the hat is a little smaller than your noggin, so the knitting stretches a little to fit snuggly). I’ll be knitting the child size.

Ready to cast on:

Using smaller needles, cast on 76 (84, 96, 106) sts, PM and join for working in the round. Work in 1×1 rib (k1, p1) for 1.5 (2, 2, 2.5)”.

So, start with your US #6 / 4mm needles and cast on. Remember to cast on a little bit loosely, this hat has to go over a head! I will be casting on 84 sts, the first size in brackets. If you have never cast on using circular needles before, check out our tutorial here. Once you have completed your ribbing your toque will look like this:

Ribbing complete!

Next round, Adult S and L only: work in 1×1 rib to last 2 sts, k2tog [- (-, 95, 105) sts]

Why this little adjustment? Because the ribbing must be an even number, but the cable and purl repeat must be an odd number for these sizes, the Adult S and L need a little decrease. You’ll just have to trust us on this one!

All sizes, change to larger needles and work set up round:
[k16, p3 (5, 3, 5)] around

To change to larger needles you simply use the larger needle to start the next round, knitting off the smaller needle in your left hand, onto the larger needle in your right hand. Since I am working the child size, I will work [k16, p5] around.This is a 21 stitch repeat and I will have 4 cables. The square brackets tell you what your repeat is, and the round brackets indicate the number of purl sts for your size. If you are knitting the baby size you will work [k16, p3] around, the child size is [k15, p5] around etc.

Work antler cable pattern following chart A or written instructions.
All Rounds: [work 16-st antler cable, p3 (5, 3, 5)] around
Work rounds 1-6 of antler cable a total of 5 (6, 8, 9) times

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You will be working the 16 stitch chart with 3 or 5 purl stitches in between, depending on your size. The chart is read from right to left, bottom to top. Why do charts work that way? Because that is the way your knitting goes!

For the child size round 1 will look like this: [k4, c4b, c4f, k4, p5] around

It is a bit more clear once a few repeats have been worked. You can see that I have 16 stitch Antler cables separated by 5 purl sts (your size might have 3 sts in between)

Never cabled before? No problem! Check out our full cable tutorial here. For the child size, I am working rounds 1-6 of the chart a total of 6 times.

6 repeats accomplished

Ready for decreases

The decreases for this hat are fairly straight forward written out line by line. If ssk and k2tog are new to you, click the links for a detailed explanation. For the Antler Toque decreases, just watch out for the cabled decreases. They are the c4bdec and c4fdec. You are decreasing and cabling at the same time.

When your stitches start to feel too stretched you can change to DPNs (double pointed needles). Why the DPNs you ask? You can knit things larger than the circumference of a circular needle, but not smaller, in order to work on the few stitches left in the decreases you will need DPNs. Alternatively you could use a long circular needle and the magic loop method.

changing-to-dpns

Switching to DPNs is easy peasy, just the same as switching from the smaller needles to the larger. You will pick up your first DPN in your right hand, and your circular needle will be in your left. You will work the stitches off of the circular onto the DPN.

When I distribute my sts on DPNs I like to put about 1/2 the sts on the first needle and about 1/4 of the sts on each of the other 2 needles. This way I don’t need the BOR marker, I know the beginning of the round is at the start of the ‘full’ needle.

Stitches distributed per my favourite method

Finishing

Break yarn leaving an 8” tail. Thread tail through remaining sts, pull tight and secure end. Weave in your ends and give your hat a block.

Using your blunt darning needle, thread the tail through the remaining live sts and take them off the needle.

Done and ready for a block!

The biggest question is to pom pom or not to pom pom. Bodhi went wild with a hot pink faux fur number, but it’s really up to you. If you are looking for a tutorial on how to make a pom pom, we have that too!

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That’s it! You are ready to wear your Antler toque out and about. Now that you are confident with your cables you can go forth and conquer a matching set of mittens, or even an Antler sweater!

More cabled knits from TCK

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Heart on my Sleeve

It feels as if we have been working on this project forever and we are so excited to share it with you! Introducing Heart on my Sleeve: Knit with Care. This is a collaborative project with so many of our very favourite designers: Shannon Cook, Romi Hill, Bristol Ivy, Tanis Lavallee, Joji Locatelli, Jane Richmond, and Ysolda Teague.

And the best part? All of the proceeds (after Ravelry and PayPal fees) are going to the Against Malaria Fund!

Hearthstone by Ysolda Teague

Emily had the idea for Heart on my Sleeve some time ago. We discussed how lucky we both are in life, how inspiring the knitting community is, and how we could give back. We also loved the idea of working with some of our favourite designers, so we put the two ideas together and so we started down the road to Heart on my Sleeve.

Crazyheart by Tanis Lavallee

The book

Heart on my Sleeve is a book of sweaters. We started with a basic bottom up sweater, and each designer put their own personal twist on the yoke. Remember those ‘choose your own adventures’ books from when you were a kid? It’s like that, but with knitting! You can make your sweater exactly like ours, or you can mix and match. All the sweaters are in DK weight at the same gauge.

Lionheart by Shannon Cook and Jane Richmond

All of these sweaters are sized baby to big!

Heart on my Sleeve

You can order the Heart on my Sleeve ebook, with 8 sweater patterns sized baby to big now for $18. After Ravelry and PayPal fees every cent goes to the Against Malaria Fund. The ebook will only be available for 1 year so get it while it’s hot!

Brightheart by Romi Hill

Wholehearted by Bristol Ivy

The Cause

We chose to donate to the Against Malaria Foundation because the need spoke to Emily and I personally as mothers. Malaria is a preventable disease – no one need die of it. Yet thousands of small children and pregnant women die of it every day. Malaria is relatively cheap to prevent, which means that every ebook sold and every dollar you donate really counts toward saving lives and improving economies.

For more information on the Against Malaria Foundation you can visit their website at www.againstmalaria.com

Heartstring by Joji Locatelli

The KAL

Who wants to get started?! For a project like this, so inspired by the knitting community we love so much, it seemed fitting to have a knit along, where knitters can knit together in a virtual stitch circle.

The KAL will be run in our Ravelry group here, but you can also chat along in our Facebook group here, or tag your projects with #heartonmysleeveknits. Em and I will be knitting along too…we just aren’t sure which sweater or combination of sweaters yet!

The KAL starts today, February 14, 2017 and goes until April 18, 2017. There are a lot of fabulous prizes from Baa Ram Ewe, Fringe Supply Co, Pom Pom Quarterly, SweetGeorgia Yarns, Tanis Fiber Arts, The Loveliest Yarn Company, and YOTH yarns.

Tenderheart by Alexa Ludeman

The ebook will only be available for 1 year so get it now and help a great cause while you are at it!

Which HOMS sweater will you cast on?

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Hearthstone Heartstring Crazyheart

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In case you missed it we are hosting a KAL over in our Ravelry group for Heart on my Sleeve! There are lots of supportive knitters there already and did I mention the fabulous prizes?

SweetGeorgia yarns has donated the yarn to make this sweater! 2 skeins of Superwash DK and a Party of 5 Gradient, the winner can choose their colours! Heartring by Joji Locatelli: The lovely SweetGeorgia

SweetGeorgia Yarns has donated a prize of 2 skeins of Superwash DK and a Party of 5 Gradient, so you can make your own wee Heartring by Joji Locatelli

What are we knitting?

Emily still hasn’t quite decided which sweater she will be knitting along, although she will have to decide soon, she only has 1 more sleeve to go! My Hearthstone for Bodhi is coming along nicely. When I went to the stash to choose some yarn for this KAL I made an awesome discovery: 2/3 of a sweater body! I can’t remember what my plan was, but it’s now becoming a Hearthstone sweater.

That’s right, I found this 2/3 sweater body just waiting for me, along with 2 more skeins. A stash find if ever there was one!

I’m working in Sweet Fiber Merino Twist Worsted, which is thicker than the DK called for so I’m knitting a 1-2 year size (which is the about the number of sts in the discovered sweater body) and it will come out a little big for Bodhi (perfect for some room to grow!).

Emily’s sleeve is looking lovely in Malabrigo Rios in ‘marte’, while mine hit a bit of a snag when I joined at the yoke to discover one sleeve was a full 12 rounds shorter than the other….rip rip rip!

5 skeins of WYS fleece DK in ecru donated by the Loveliest Yarn Company

5 skeins of West Yorkshire Spinners fleece DK in ecru donated by the Loveliest Yarn Company

For the nervous sweater knitter:

If you haven’t knit a sweater before don’t worry, this is the perfect moment! All the sweaters in Heart on my Sleeve are done from the bottom up, they are all pretty much the same until you hit the yoke. If you are new to it all, try the Heartstring yoke. If you have experience with charts or colourwork try Ironheart, Crazyheart, or Tenderheart!

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Baa Ram Ewe has donated a sweater quantity of their beautiful Dovestone DK, perfect for a Lionheart sweater!

The awesome prizes:

We were so fortunate to have so much support from the yarn-y community for this project! There are so many great prizes for the Heart on my Sleeve knit along, thanks again to Baa Ram Ewe, Fringe Supply Co, Pom Pom Quarterly, SweetGeorgia Yarns, Tanis Fiber Arts, The Loveliest Yarn Company, and YOTH yarns.

YOTH big sister dk in ‘raw honey’ and ‘blue raspberry’, perfect for Romi’s Brightheart sweater!

Tanis of Tanis Fiber Arts (and the designer of Crazyheart) has donated one of their beautiful palettes!

This lovely Take Heart gift set from Pom Pom Quarterly

A lovely Wollelujah tote from Fringe Supply Company

So, which Heart on my Sleeve sweater are you working on?

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There are some knitters I just can’t stop stalking online, and LauraPNW is one of these! What is she knitting now? What combinations of beautiful yarns and patterns is she putting together? Her beautiful knits and stunning photography make me drool every time, I want to run for my needles and dive through the stash!

I have been watching Laura’s work for years, and she has also done a lot of test-knitting for us, so I was very pleased when she agreed to let us share some of her beautiful work with you.

I’m sure it will inspire you as much as it does me. Laura has kindly answered a few of my questions about her knitting and photography too.

Laura test-knit a beautiful Ironheart sweater recently – this is one of the designs from our charity ebook, Heart On My Sleeve.

A knitter in the Pacific Northwest

Where do you live (you do such beautiful photography! such great backdrops!)? I live in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains on the Olympic Peninsula, in a small town called Sequim, WA. On clear days I can look to the north and see Victoria, Canada. I grew up in the Seattle area, and married into Sequim, and I love it. It truly is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I don’t think I will ever leave (plus I have a cool job as a biology teacher at the high school here).

Laura rocking a lovely Stovetop hat

A 1999 for her little girl

Have you been knitting long? I learned to knit about twenty years ago (I was in college). I knit a lot more now than I used to because I appreciate the process a lot more. When I first started it was more about making funky things for all my friends.

An Antler cardigan with a little room to grow

You knit many beautiful things for your children – can you tell me about how you pick patterns for them, and how you feel about knitting for them? I love knitting for my 10 year old son more than anyone because he loves his sweaters so much. He literally wears hand knit sweaters everyday to school, and it makes me so happy that I just keep on knitting for him. When he makes requests, it is hard for me to refuse, plus he loves bright fun colors. Soon he will be out of kids sizes and I am excited to have a lot more designs to chose for him. My 4 yo daughter doesn’t appreciate her hand knits as much, but she is smaller and there are so many cute girl things that I find I just knit for her because it is fun, and not because she will necessarily appreciate them.

I love this Campfire pullover in such brilliant colours! This really makes me feel like I must knit one for Max!

A Prism hat with a lovely neon rainbow!

You said your husband taught you everything you know about photography – could you elaborate? My husband minored in photography in college so when I got my first DSLR he had to show me how to use it and what cool things I could do with it. He has given me different lenses and props for gifts (though I find a pretty much just stick to a 50mm lens at all times). I still have a lot to learn when it comes to photography, but I am happy to keep learning. All of the photos of me are taken by my husband, and I take most of the photos of the kids.

What’s on your to-knit list? Any techniques or big projects you’re planning to tackle? I don’t think I plan my knits too much. I like to decide spur of the moment what to knit and go for it, but sometimes I dream about projects (Celestarium was one of those that I drooled over for a long time before actually attempting it, and it turned out to be quite easy).

I really, really want to knit North Shore (and I am not just saying that because it is a tck pattern!) I love the ocean, trees and mountains because it looks like home, but I don’t like doing colorwork. All those balls of yarn sort of stress me out. I made a little one a few years ago and it turned out all right, and I keep practicing my colorwork, so I think I am about ready to knit myself one.

Despite disliking colourwork, this version of Crazyheart (from our new charity collection Heart On My Sleeve) is one of the latest knits off her needles.

What yarns are you coveting these days? I seem to have a lot of Colour Adventures, Madelinetosh, Malabrigo, and a growing collection of Sweet Georgia. I think I choose my yarns based on color more than anything else, so although I am drawn to certain dyers, I think I could love any wool.

A stunning version of Raindrops!

What a knitter!

Please don’t get the wrong impression – Laura is not on the Tin Can Knits staff! She doesn’t knit exclusively our patterns, you must check out her projects page to browse all the other fabulous projects she has knit – it’s truly inspiring!

Are you ready for Edinburgh Yarn Festival?

We’re launching a new design at EYF this year! And we’re having a giveaway: if you’re one of the first 25 to stop by the booth on Friday or Saturday, you’ll get your copy free!

Tin Can Knits is booth M9 (in the concourse, next to the coffee bar, across from Brooklyn Tweed!). Come by and see the new Mad Colour and Heart On My Sleeve designs. I’m always happy to sign books and chat about your projects, and the booth is shared again this year with Rainbow Heirloom, so there’ll be some scrumptious yarn to pet too!

Knits on display at EYF:

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Ysolda’s Hearthstone from Heart on my Sleeve

So, it is often said amongst knitters that they do not enjoy swatching (if you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out our tutorial on gauge in knitting here). Even those who swatch anyways don’t love it, so here is our tip to sort of avoid swatching in a bottom up sweater, like all of the sweaters in Heart on My Sleeve.

A good swatch:

Confession time: I really only swatch for new designs and sweaters. I’ve been knitting a long time and I’m pretty confident my gauge will be right on (and that I need to go down a needle or 2 when it comes to ribbing). Armed with this information and a willingness to rip out a 1/2 finished hat/scarf/shawl because I’m not happy with the gauge, I go forth and cast on.

A lovely garter gauge swatch

Garments are a whole other thing. Garments need a good swatch. A good swatch should always be indicative of the finished garment. It should be pretty big (at lease a 6″ square), it should be done the way the gauge in the pattern states (if it is over a cable pattern, measure it over a cable pattern, if it is on the smaller needles knit it on the smaller needles), it should be washed and blocked (some yarns change rather drastically after blocking), and if the gauge is given in rounds, the swatch should be in the round.

Tenderheart from Heart on my Sleeve

Sleeves as a gauge swatch:

Why must it be so complicated?! Some of us have a slightly tighter or looser gauge when we purl, so if you work an entire sweater in the round, it may be significantly different than if you had worked it back and forth. While you could do a swatch in the round (cast on, join for working in the round, knit for about 6″, bind off, cut your swatch and measure the gauge), in the case of a bottom-up sweater it seems more prudent to just cast on a sleeve.

Grab your smaller needles, bust out some ribbing, and start in on the sleeve. Once you get 4″ up the sleeve put the live sts on waste yarn and block your sleeve. If you find you are happy with the gauge, you can just carry on. If not, you can rip back to the ribbing and start from there with a smaller or larger needle as needed.

This handy dandy method fulfills the needs of a gauge swatch and the need to cast on RIGHT NOW at the same time. It’s the perfect solution.

More sleeve-first knits from TCK:

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This will come as no surprise to those who have been following Tin Can Knits for a while, but Emily and I love geometric fair isle. The tiny repeats in the Tenderheart pattern were really fun to swatch and choose and I doubt we are done with the idea yet!

While one of us usually takes the lead on a design, our patterns with Fair Isle are among our most collaborative. We go back and forth on chart variations, make a few swatch hats, and the final product is usually a mix of us both.

Tenderheart has a simple construction, like all of the patterns in Heart on my Sleeve, it is worked from the bottom up (sleeves and body first, then all joined together for the yoke). The Fair Isle is a small repeat, with short floats, perfect for those with limited colourwork experience.

Tenderheart Details

Pattern: Tenderheart from Heart on my Sleeve (proceeds from this book are all going to the Against Malaria Foundation, so get your copy now!)

Yarn: DK weight yarn
MC: 350 (400, 500, 650, 800, 900, 1000, 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 1600, 1800, 2000, 2200) yds
CC: 140 (140, 150, 170, 230, 240, 250, 270, 270, 300, 330, 400, 430, 520, 580) yds

We used Madelinetosh DK for the grown up version in a few of my favourite colourways: Antler (the perfect neutral cool white), with Tart and Scarlet for the contrast.

For Jonesie’s sweater I used John Arbon Textiles Knit by Numbers DK. Emily knit up a Prism hat from Mad Colour in this yarn and I couldn’t wait to cast on a sweater in it! The yarn is soft and heathered and the colourwork really popped in the black and white!

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I love the contrast cast-on detail (I might have been adding it to everything lately!), and of course, the heart on my sleeve. This heart motif was created by Mary Jane Mucklestone, a genius at Fair Isle, who has literally written the book on it!

If you haven’t joined the Heart on my Sleeve KAL yet, check it out! There are fabulous prizes and lots of knitters clicking away already.

More fabulous Fair Isle from TCK:

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It’s that time of year again, time for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival! This year we will be sharing a booth (M9) with the lovely Nina of Rainbow Heirloom, and to celebrate we have a new pattern, Ridgeline, in the newest Rainbow Heirloom yarn: Heritage DK. We will be giving away 25 copies of Ridgeline to the first 25 people to the booth on Friday and Saturday!

Highlights from EYF 2016!

Ridgeline is a hat and mitten set inspired by those excellent vintage photographs of people on the ski slopes. Picture a gal in a warm hand knit toque and mittens thrown on, perhaps, with a fair isle yoked sweater, long wooden skis, and a smile. This set features graphic chevrons that shift the colour from one to the next. I have been enjoying colours in 3s lately so this set fit the bill!

Nina is wearing her beautiful Lush cardigan along with the Ridgeline set

Ridgeline Details

Pattern: Ridgeline

Yarn: Rainbow Heirloom Heritage DK (shown in ‘snow melt’, ‘wicked pacific’, and ‘golden north’)
for hat: MC: 60 (80, 110, 130, 160) yds; CC1: 30 yds; CC2: 45 (55, 65, 90, 100) yds
for mittens: MC: 80 (110, 140, 160) yds; CC1: 15 (20, 30, 35) yds; CC2: 25 (30, 40, 45) yds

Suggested Needles: US #3 / 3.25mm and US #5 / 3.75mm

If you are anywhere near Edinburgh this Friday or Saturday, definitely drop by the Tin Can Knits booth (M9). You can peruse our books, get your copy signed, and see all the lovely new knits from Heart on my Sleeve and Mad Colour in person!

More Tin Can Knits to see in person at EYF:

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Well, the 2016 hackathon may be over, but I still love a good hack! While making a sweater for my Mum’s 60th birthday I decided to hack the Clayoquot cardigan, making it a pullover.

My Mum has always loved red, grey and plaid. These are her wardrobe staples, classic and unchanging. This means it is fairly easy to make things for her because I know what will work, and what will be worn often. So I embarked on a sweater for mum with some classic geometric fair isle in red, white, and charcoal; a guaranteed win!

Ever since I designed the Clayoquot cardigan in 2014 for Road Trip, I have wanted to try it out as a pullover, and this seemed just the right opportunity. Mum even requested a pullover, perfect! I used the beautiful Sweet Fiber Merino Twist DK in ‘charcoal’, ‘Ina’s red’ and ‘winter’, a combination I adore! The sweater took a *smidge* longer than I had hoped, but no matter, it’s done and it’s perfect!

How I Hacked It:

The hacks were pretty simple for this one. The important points are:

Sleeves: work these exactly as written.

Pockets: I skipped them.

Body cast-on: cast on 1 less stitch than it calls for in the pattern. Your steek stitches aren’t needed but your 1″ button band won’t be there, so it actually all evens out.

Charts: you don’t need the steek stitches or the edge stitches for the charts, just the repeats. To work the charts in the yoke you want to make sure the number of sts you decrease to is divisible by the chart repeat (so if the chart repeat is 8 sts, the number of sts you have should be divisible by 8). A few sts decreased here or there isn’t going to make or break your sweater, throw in a couple of extra k2togs to get to the number you need.

Join at the yoke: The Clayoquot cardigan was knit from the bottom up, that means the body and sleeves were knit first and then joined together for the yoke. In the original sweater there is a steek in the middle, so there is no pattern jog (well, there is, but it’s in the steek so you can’t notice it). But for a pullover you want the beginning of round (BOR) to be at the back (I put mine at the back of the left shoulder).

To accomplish this work your joining row as follows: knit 1/2 your body sts minus your underarm sts, knit across one sleeve, place your underarm sts on waste yarn, knit to end of the body except the underarm sts (place those on waste yarn), knit across sleeve sts, place BOR marker. You are now joined for the round with the marker at the back of the left shoulder.

Short Rows: You’ll need to position your back neck short rows around the centre back, (because we re-positioned the BOR marker, if you work the short rows as written they will end up around your right shoulder and front, not quite what you are looking for).

Voila! A perfect pullover. Mum loves it, and it was a pretty relaxing knit, with a little fair isle at the yoke to keep things interesting.

More Fair Isle fun from TCK:

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I had some grand plans for my 2016 Christmas sweaters (as I only have one level of plan: grand!) but in the end, Hunter still fit her Britannia sweater from last Christmas and Jones wore the Tenderheart sweater from Heart on my Sleeve. Wee Bodhi got a new sweater though, an Antler. As the youngest of 3 she has an amazing wardrobe of hand-me-downs, but rarely something Mama knit just for her. She took to it quite readily and has requested more yarn ‘for a sweater for me, so I will be cozy’.

This sweater is all about my favourite cable, the Antler

I think between Emily and I we have knit an Antler sweater of some kind each year since we first released the pattern in 2012. There have been baby gifts, sweaters for us, and lovely Antlers for our little ones. In worsted weight with all the detail in the yoke it knits up quick with just enough interest at the end to keep us going!

Antler’s through the ages! It is one of my very favourite baby gifts, and Em’s too. Antlers for Max, Bodhi, Hunter, Emily, Alexa, and some babies to be!

For Bodhi’s Antler I wanted it to fit just right for Christmas, but in hindsight I should have gone up a size for a little more wear (will I ever learn?). I used YOTH Father in ‘cracked pepper’, a yarn that I definitely want a sweater in for myself! Light and warm, all the best things about wool, and with a softer spin, Bodhi wears it next to the skin without issue. The dark grey was a bit of pain to knit at night, but the colour gives this sweater a timeless quality and makes it a very wearable wardrobe piece. I might just have to knit up another in the next size….or 2, man these kids grow like weeds!

Looking like a big girl, modeling with the promise of ‘hot chockit’

If you are a bit tentative to try it, the Antler makes a great first sweater and we have a step by step tutorial that takes you from cast on to button band!

Who have you knit an Antler for? Share your photos on your favourite social spot with the hashtag #antlersweater

Let’s make 2017 a good one!

More cabled goodness from TCK:

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OK so I’ve officially been obsessed with gigantic chunky blankets, for at least the last year.

After I made the Stashbuster tunisian crochet monster, I immediately thought MAN I NEED TO DO THIS IN A KNIT! And so Marley was born. With 4 yarn weights and 4 size options, this is a very versatile pattern. Also, since you knit it from end to end, you can pretty much work till you get to 1/2 of your total yardage, then you’ll know how much farther you can go!

The super-bulky version that I made is pretty crazy. Let me tell you, while it didn’t take me very long to knit, it ate up a fabulously large amount of yarn. Which for me and my mountain of odds and ends of stash was a great thing! If you don’t already have an unreasonable stash mountain that will never be made into more sensible projects, this may not be the most cost effective project. As the pattern is designed in multiple yarn weights, you can always knit a more reasonable version in aran weight!

This beautifully delicate version was knit in Ginger’s Hand Dyed Super Sheep Aran in the colourway ‘bourbon and water’.

I made the largest size given by the pattern, in super-bulky weight. The finished blanket measures 58″ wide x 83″ long, and it’s a beast! It weighs 4.6 lbs in total (that’s around 2100 g). If you break that down to 100g skeins, that is 21 skeins of yarn. That said, my rationale was that if I didn’t use the yarn, it wouldn’t be of any use! I enjoyed incorporating the odds and ends of dozens of finished projects and designs, and this made the experience a trip down memory lane as I remembered buying, knitting, dyeing, and enjoying each of the yarns which I added in to this special blanket.

unreasonably woolly

If you DO fall into the category of having stash beyond life expectancy (or some similar problem), then hey ho! I’ll share with you how I made this bad boy!

I used a US #19 / 15mm 47” long circular needle, and achieved a gauge of 7.5 sts & 14 rows / 4” in garter stitch. That’s less than 2 stitches per inch… these stitches are BIG.

I chose a marled ombre of various stash yarns, starting with deep purples through red, orange and yellow to white. I had previously done a bit of a stash purge, pulling out all the odds and ends and partial balls and things that I knew I would likely never cast on as newer and more intriguing yarn finds would take precedence. So I had a few bags of yarn which were arranged roughly by colour, and these are what I pulled my yarn from.

Stash Mountain

I started with the deep dark purples; and proceeded through to white. I held what ‘felt like’ the right number of yarns together, and found it was easy to adjust on the fly by adding or removing strands as it seemed necessary, or as I ran out of one yarn or another. See the detail photos below for a sense of how many and what weight yarns worked to create this super-bulky gauge.

One bulky, two aran weight, and two sock weight strands.

One DK, 2 lace, and 5 sock strands, including some angora which added a really magnificent halo.

One chunky, one DK, two sock, and two lace strands. The higher contrast in this section gave a more tweedy / speckly effect.

One aran, and three worsted / heavy DK strands.

Three worsted / DK strands, and two sock strands.

One aran, two sock, and four lace strands.

One bulky and 5 lace strands. I found that I had a lot of lace-weight yarn in my stash, and despite loving to knit lace, I don’t tend to knit it using lace weight yarn. So holding strands together to make up heavier weights seems like a good strategy for me to get these yarns out of the stash and into the world!

Now that Marley has featured prominently at both Knit City and the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, it will make its happy home on my couch, to keep me warm and cozy while I knit and watch TV.

Do you love knitting blankets? We definitely do! So much so that our latest book, Mad Colour, featured a total of FOUR blankets! They are such a fabulous way to use up odds and ends, and to create delicious multi-coloured confections!

Mad Colour includes 4 blankets: Pop, Bounce, Polygon, and Marley.

Neve was so little and new when I finished this blanket!

We’re pretty in love with marling (holding 2 or more yarns together to get a speckled or blended effect). There’ll be more on that soon!

This is a marled version of the Polygon Blanket that I’ve been gradually working on since we released Mad Colour.

Badass Blankets from TCK:

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Choosing Hearthstone

It seems Bodhi is getting all the sweaters lately! While I intended to knit up a sweater for Jones during the Heart on my Sleeve KAL, when I went to the stash to choose some yarn I came up with a sweater body, 2/3 done, in about a Bodhi size. The yarn is a beautiful grey/brown called ‘bruin’ in Sweet Fiber Merino Twist Worsted. I can’t remember what the original plan was, but it became the start of a Hearthstone sweater!

My Hearthstone Mods

All of the sweaters for Heart on my Sleeve are worked from the bottom up, so I knocked out a couple of sleeves, finished up the body, and then it was on to the yoke. Since I had a worsted weight yarn at a gauge of 18 sts per 4″ I followed the 1-2 year instructions but used 4-6 year lengths for a sweater that has some room to grow. Check out our tutorial on working a pattern in a different gauge for some useful tips if you’d like to do the same!

After working for ages on stockinette in the round, the yoke feels like a treat and I always love cables!

Are you Knitting Along?

We’ve got a big Heart On My Sleeve KAL running in our Ravelry group (with chat on our Facebook Group too) if you would like to join in. There is still time to knit up a kid’s size, or an adult size if you are speedy! There are some really great prizes… and all proceeds from this collection go to the Against Malaria Foundation to save lives! (We’ve raised US$ 36,640 already, which buys 14,655 nets to protect 26,000 people… the entire population of 40-50 villages). Learn more here.

A Glimpse into the Mind of another Designer

It is always fun, as a designer, to get a look into the mind of another designer by knitting their patterns. I am accustomed to being the one figuring things out, and it is so enjoyable to simply knit when someone else has already done the designing! I had this experience knitting up the kiddie sizes of Romi’s Brightheart and Bristol’s Wholehearted sweater. A few ‘aha, I see what you did there’ moments, and one ‘how did she come up with this? Brilliant!’. Ysolda’s Hearthstone yoke was equally fun, straightforward in instruction, and genius in its simplicity and impact. The finished sweater is beautiful and I love it.

More pretty sweaters from Heart on my Sleeve:

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We have long loved the bottom up sweater. For a pullover you work 3 tubes, attach them all together and the knit a yoke. For a cardigan it’s 2 tubes and a rectangle. Simplicity at it’s finest! The only problem is that pesky seam at the undearm, so here is a little step by step on closing it up.

All the sweaters from Heart on my Sleeve are worked from the bottom up!

(note: for tutorials on bottom up sweater you can check out our Antler Cardigan tutorial or our bottom up sweater tutorial for Heart on my Sleeve here)

The underarm stitches from the body and the sleeve are on hold on waste yarn and there is a long tail from the sleeve. You will use the tail to work the Kitchener stitch seam.
Insert needle tips or double pointed needles into the held stitches on each side; the needle tips should be on the side where the yarn tail is as you will begin seaming from that end.
Remove the waste yarn
Thread a blunt darning needle with the long tail from the sleeve and use Kitchener stitch to seam the live stitches together. Note that there are still little holes on either side of the completed seam.
Use the darning needle to stitch up the hole. Then weave the yarn across to the other side and do the same to close up the last hole.
Voila! A nice neat underarm seam has been completed!

1. The underarm stitches from the body and the sleeve are on hold on waste yarn and there is a long tail from the sleeve. You will use the tail to work the Kitchener stitch seam.

Insert needle tips or double pointed needles into the held stitches on each side; the needle tips should be on the side where the yarn tail is as you will begin seaming from that end.

3. Remove the waste yarn

4. Thread a blunt darning needle with the long tail from the sleeve and use Kitchener stitch to seam the live stitches together. Note that there are still little holes on either side of the completed seam.

5. Use the darning needle to stitch up the hole. Then weave the yarn across to the other side and do the same to close up the last hole.

6. Voila! A nice neat underarm seam has been completed!

More bottom up sweaters from TCK:

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Ironheart from the Heart On My Sleeve ebook

There are many ways to knit a sweater (probably as many as there are ways to knit!), but one of our favourite construction methods is knitting from the bottom up. All of the sweaters in the Heart on my Sleeve collection are worked this way, as well as many other TCK sweaters. If you are looking for a tutorial on a bottom up cardigan check out our Antler tutorial here.

To make a pullover from the bottom up, you knit with 3 tubes (2 sleeve tubes and a body tube), then you join them all together for the yoke. Sounds simple right? It is! Here are some photos to help you on your way.

Before the yoke join:

Your sweater will look like three tubes; two sleeve tubes and a body tube.

Your sleeves will have the underarm sts on one piece of waste yarn and all other sts on a separate piece of waste yarn. Before starting the joining round you must put all sleeve sts except the underarm stitches onto needles (so they’re ready to be worked).

For the Heart on my Sleeve sweaters you will also have one set of underarm sts on hold for the body (this is the right underarm).

Joining it all together

How do we join these all up? Different sweater patterns may vary (it will depend on where the beginning of round marker is located), but here is how it works for all of the Heart on my Sleeve patterns:

The Steps

Knit across a little less than 1/2 the body sts (this is the back)

Place underarm sts for body on waste yarn (this is the left underarm)

Knit across the sleeve sts (this is the left sleeve)

Knit across the remaining body sts (this is the front). The right underarm sts from the body are already on waste yarn.

Knit across the second set of sleeve sts (this is the right sleeve)

Place marker (this is your new beginning of round, located at the back right shoulder, between sleeve and back stitches).

Steps 1 and 2: Once you have knit across half of your body sts (minus the underarm sts) you will place underarm sts on waste yarn.

Step 3: Next you will knit across the sleeve sts.

You will repeat this process (knit across body sts, then knit across sleeve sts) once more. Then re-place your BOR marker. This method locates the BOR between right sleeve and back stitches.

Once joined, you will still have 2 sets of sts on waste yarn at each underarm, to be joined with a Kitchener stitch once the yoke is complete. Check out our tutorial on those pesky underarms for details on how to seam them together.

This is what the underarm looks like while you complete the yoke.

Voila! You are all ready to knit yourself a yoke. I worked the Ironheart yoke, a lovely bit of garter and lace.

More bottom-up sweaters from Tin Can Knits:

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